TIL that James Buchanan, the 15th U.S. President, was morally opposed to slavery, but believed it was protected by the constitution, and so continuously brought slaves with his own money in order to free them

James Buchanan was born on April 23, 1791, in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, to James Buchanan Sr. (1761-1833), a merchant who had emigrated from Ireland, and Elizabeth Speer Buchanan (1767-1833). The younger Buchanan graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and then studied law. After being admitted to the bar in 1812, he opened a successful practice in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Did You Know? James Buchanan was nicknamed "Old Buck" and "Ten-Cent Jimmy." The latter was given to him by the Republicans in the presidential campaign of 1856 after Buchanan said 10 cents was fair daily pay for manual laborers.

A member of the Federalist Party, Buchanan began his political career by serving in the Pennsylvania legislature from 1814 to 1816. In 1820, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he remained for the next decade. In Congress, Buchanan aligned himself with the Democrats as the Federalist Party dissolved. After Democrat Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) was elected president in 1828, he appointed Buchanan the U.S. ambassador to Russia in 1831. The following year, Buchanan negotiated a trade and maritime agreement with Russia.

Buchanan is the only U.S. president who never married. In 1819, he was engaged to Ann Coleman (1796-1819), the daughter of a wealthy Pennsylvania manufacturer; however, the wedding was called off that same year. When Coleman died unexpectedly soon afterward, rumors circulated that her death had been a suicide. During Buchanan’s time in the White House, his niece, Harriet Lane (1830-1903), assumed the social duties of first lady and became a popular figure.